Patriotic Millionaires Slam Congress on the Sequester Stall
“We did our part, now it is time to do yours!”

New York, NY –Today, Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength implore Congress to come to an agreement and stop the impending budget cuts from the sequester. “Your job in its most basic form is to keep the country running. We did our part, now it is time to do yours!”

Travel writer, TV host, Tour Organizer, and Patriotic Millionaire Rick Steves (WA) says: “It’s time for millionaires like me to step up to the plate and contribute our share. A millionaire south of our border would spend a small fortune for designer fortifications. He’d need armed guards on his street corner so his child could walk to the park. What’s it worth to be able to work hard and prosper in the USA. It’s worth being a patriotic supporter of a progressive tax system. What’s honest? To acknowledge that we are the least taxed wealthy class in the civilized world and we’d live nowhere else. Together, we can invest in the fabric of our society and together we can enjoy the peace and stability and opportunity that you can only find here in America. Yep, I’m a Patriotic Millionaire.”

Filmmaker and Patriotic Millionaire Abigail Disney (NY) says: “The fact is that I pay a lower effective rate on my income than my assistant does, and that is just plain stupid. We need to address the most egregious outs millionaires have access to and bring the tax code back in sync with our values as a democracy and meritocracy. Closing the carried interest loophole, to name one of many, will go a long way toward getting us there.”

CEO of NuCompass Mobility and Patriotic Millionaire Frank Patitucci (CA) says: “If my paying a few more dollars in taxes helps close a deal that will maintain basic government services, count me in. The alternative, a depressed economy, will cost me a whole lot more.”

Former AOL Executive and Patriotic Millionaire Charlie Fink (VA) says: “These two things I know to be true: there is no problem in business that cannot be solved by more revenue AND no business can cut its way out of a budget crisis. With or without the sequester, our problem remains lack of revenue. This was only slightly addressed by higher taxes on the wealthy. We must end corporate welfare, and get back to a system where our businesses, along with the most wealthy, contribute to the general welfare that allows our society to thrive, and create opportunity for others.”

Patriotic Millionaire Woody Kaplan (MA) says: “In order to maintain tax loopholes which advantage only the wealthiest Americans, the Republicans are putting our economy at risk, disrupting government services, and putting middle class taxpayers on furlough. This is an unconscionable combination of greed and arrogance.”

Attorney and Patriotic Millionaire Joel Kanter (VA) says: “It is remarkable that we are days away from the latest chapter in ‘Hostage Politics First, Country & Policy Later’ where millions of families will pay an enormous price. One can only hope that the outcry from those seeking reason will become unbearable on those seeking purity of purpose at all costs, and that Americans themselves will become ever more vigil about allowing their government to be hijacked and held hostage. I daresay an airliner facing these circumstances would become the focus of the world, and yet the millions that will be impacted here are seemingly noticed by none.”

Founder of Student Financial Aid Services, Inc. and Patriotic Millionaire Michael Alexander (CA) says: “Everyone who has reviewed the tax code agrees that it is past time to eliminate tax loopholes that benefit the wealthiest. We are better than that. It is time that the GOP act like grown-ups, show compassion, and do what is best for the country and those less fortunate.”

Angel Investor and Patriotic Millionaire Ron Garret, PhD. (CA) says: “Republicans say they want to shrink the deficit, but they refuse to raise taxes, which leaves draconian cuts as the only possible option. But instead of owning this conclusion they instead try to blame the president for the inevitable results of their own policies and the laws that they voted for. Apparently Republicans understand that if they stood by the results of their policies, the American people would run them and their gerrymandered obstructionist hypocrisy out of town on a rail.”

Patriotic Millionaire Emanuel Stern (NY) says: “For the good of the country, politics and partisanship must be put aside and our national interest set first. Any rational person would understand that both cuts and revenues are needed to achieve fiscal responsibility. It is time for cuts and they should be substantial. But they also must be accompanied by revenue. Loopholes must be closed. Please stop playing politics with our Country’s national interest.”

***The Patriotic Millionaires are available for comment *** For media booking or for more information please contact Rachael Wall at rwall@agendaproject.org or 212-481-8302.

The Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength was formed in Fall 2010 by some of the country’s most financially successful citizens who came together to urge the President to let the Bush tax cuts expire for people making more than $1 million per year. Now, Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength consists of more than 220 members, including: more than a dozen current and former Google employees, actress Edie Falco of Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, the founder of Esprit, the founder of the Princeton Review, travel writer Rick Steves, the founder of Ask.com, legendary philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, famed economist Nouriel Roubini, financial guru Andrew Tobias, top executives from Warburg, Pincus, and other major financial firms, filmmaker Abigail Disney, and many others.